ECHR rulings on Türkiye unjust, political: Erdoğan

ANKARA

The rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Türkiye are not fair and politically motivated, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, underlining that his government will continue to take measures to improve the quality of judicial services for the Turkish people.

“On the ECHR… The rulings of the ECHR are not just, they are political. When it comes to Türkiye, they issue political rulings but when it is about France or Germany, they rule totally opposite,” Erdoğan said in his address at a ceremony for the beginning of the judicial year at the Supreme Court of Appeals on Sept. 1.

Türkiye has long been criticizing the Strasbourg-based court over its rulings on civil society activist Osman Kavala and former co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş who are behind bars over terror-related charges. The ECHR demanded the release of Kavala on the grounds that the case against him was lacking evidence and that his rights were violated. The Council of Europe has launched the infringement procedure against Türkiye after it rejected the release of Kavala.

“Complaining about the shortcomings of the functioning of justice and brewing hostile sentiments against the judicial system are two different things. The former can be understood and can trigger steps for the improvement of the system, but the latter is unacceptable and even a treason,” he said.

The real motive of those who are imposing these rulings on Türkiye is not to better the state of the rule of law in Türkiye but use all these arguments in a bid to weaken the country, Erdoğan suggested.

“Türkiye has now moved to a higher league. Thanks to our efforts over the past 20 years, we are now ready for this new league with our well-established infrastructure. At a moment when the world and our region are boiling with conflicts, we are ready for the construction of great and strong Türkiye,” President Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan stressed Türkiye’s presence in the world has become much more visible thanks to its diplomatic and military achievements and underlined that the country’s influence is rising across the world.

The government is ready to take measures to improve the quality of the judicial services and one of the first things to be done will be strengthening the defense right of the citizens at court by legislating a bill on the lawyers, Erdoğan noted.

He also called on the Justice Ministry and all other judicial institutions to start works for preparing the 2053 vision for the Turkish justice system.